“Lesbian agitator” vs. “gestapo thugs”
Where the two sides have landed 36 hours after ICE killed Renee Good
You’re here because you’re watching politics get body-slammed by digital culture and content creators. I’m here because I’m the only one who can guide you through it.
I’m not gonna lie y’all, we are down bad.
This week started with the bright scent of possibility, containing, dare I say, undertones of progress, renewal, hope even. I regret to inform you, reader: We are single digit days into 2026 and I am heavy bargaining with the lord I don’t believe in.
My therapist hit me with one of those “let me know if you need to talk before our next session!” received in the tone of Whoopi Goldberg saying “you in danger, girl!” And that’s how I know we have no choice but to come back to the toolkit of reason and rationality.
To get a grip on the rapidly evolving situation in Minnesota, we gotta look back to give ourselves a chance to feel prepared moving forward.
Contextual timeline from 2020 through Wednesday night: addressed. That leaves us with what’s sprouted today. Weeds. Invasive, ugly, menacing, seemingly indestructible weeds. I’ve got a key theme, main target, and side character for you from each side. No life changing analysis, just the state of play and confirmation that VP, whether you got the job or not, is the least desirable title in America.
🐘 KEY THEME: IDENTITY
So many figures on the right spent the day whittling the victim, Renee Nicole Good, down to fit a very specific archetype most suitable for their narrative.
Focus on her being an unideal mom:
Mike Cernovich: not just “a random mom,” made clear by “interviews with her comrades”
Tim Pool: presents a larger problem when average “middle age white women are willing to kill federal agents for their ideology”
Peachy Keenan: what happens when a woman chooses “domestic extremism over being extremely domestic”
Focus on having pronouns in her IG bio:
Laura Loomer shares a screenshot with a picture of an unrelated woman: “‘She/her’ Literally every time.”
Libs of TikTok and Fox News’ Jesse Watters also note the pronouns, unclear what that’s supposed to tell us
Focus on her being married to a woman:
Matt Walsh: a “lesbian agitator” met a “disgraceful and humiliating end”
One user posts a photo of another unrelated person, lamenting pining over Good’s “normal life” before becoming a “leftist lesbian”
Misc:
Elon Musk evaluated the situation and decided it was the right time to go full white pride
Lots of chatter that the shooting was staged, wondering who paid the “cop-attacking psycho”
🐘 MAIN TARGET: TIM WALZ
We’re seeing the right’s ongoing campaign to discredit Gov. Walz — which I wrote about in my last piece — kick into a new gear. They’ve already labeled him a fraudster, this escalation greenlights phase two: full takedown.
WH Rapid Response account labels him “unstable” and “unwell”
Katie Miller blames him for spearheading “psychological warfare”
Townhall’s Dustin Grage accuses him of escalating on purpose “to turn this into the sequel for Black Hawk Down”
Breanna Morello of the new Pentagon Press Corps says he “needs” riots as a “distraction for his fraud”
Ben Shapiro labels his activation of the National Guard as the “textbook definition of insurrection”
TPUSA’s Savanah Hernandez wonders why he’s not “sitting in a jail cell”
Jack Posobiec thinks we should “Maduro him”
🐘 SIDE CHARACTER: KYLE RITTENHOUSE
Yes, the perpetual, inevitable appearance of Kyle Rittenhouse — the one who shot and killed multiple protesters in 2020 and got away with it.
🫏 KEY THEME: HYPOCRISY
In an era when it can take the left quite some time to come up with their chosen path of (least) resistance, this was almost too easy. There were so many opportunities to call upon Republicans’ better former angels in reference to this case.
Having just marked the fifth anniversary of January 6th, there was no shortage of memorial for Ashli Babbitt, shot by law enforcement that day. So …
Mehdi Hasan: “The hypocrisy of MAGA is always clear but it’s just too much to have them pivot in 24 hours from Ashley Babbitt good, law enforcement bad; to Renee Good bad, law enforcement good.”
Adam Copeland: “Just so I’m clear on the hypocrisy… Ashlii Babbitt murdered, but Renee Nicole Good ‘should have complied.’ Did I get all your bullshit straight?”
The Recount team posted a supercut chock full of brutal irony from conservatives slamming the shooting of an anonymous (see above) innocent woman.
A post from DHS the morning of the shooting saying “GOOD MORNING MINNEAPOLIS” drew its fair share of ire.
A video surfaced, allegedly of the ICE agent, running around the scene of the shooting. Dems are pairing it with Trump’s comments that it’s “hard to believe he is alive.”
🫏 MAIN TARGET: JD VANCE
He is catching some absolutely brutal hands after a press briefing he led today, which the right claimed was a massive W. Like … I’ll just let you see these names for yourself.
Crooked’s Jon Favreau: “the whiniest little bitch I’ve seen in public life”
Bulwark’s Tim Miller: “most appalling person in public life since segregation” giving a “truly despicable performance” — (also called him repulsive)
MeidasTouch: “as evil as it gets”
Kylie Cheung from Abortion, Every Day: “cartoonishly fascist”
TYT’s Jon Iadarola: “defending this murderer more passionately” than his family
This will mean nothing to a lot of you but: “tumblr wokescold cadence with kkk ideology”
CNN even took a swing who played him offstage by saying, that was JD Vance who “vehemently blamed Renee Nicole Good for her own death
🫏 SIDE CHARACTER: KFC
Listen, it’s not everyday I’m publicly announcing my agreement with Barstool Big Wigs. Even though he’s getting absolutely devoured like the Colonel’s secret recipe, host KFC got this one right:
“I’m not saying this isn’t a complicated situation ... but what I am saying is the people in charge, the guys with the guns in their hands enforcing the rules, don't seem to be able to navigate those complications.”
LOOSE ENDS:
📰 Something you should read today: Dicing An Onion the Mathematically Optimal Way — The Pudding
*This is old, but you deserve to give your brain a sugar-coated steam clean, so here’s one of my favorite articles ever with some of the best data viz ever
🥹 Something to make you smile today: The rumors are true, I did go to Hawaii and I can confirm: THEY WERE NOT LYING THAT TURTLES DO JUST PULL UP TO REST ON THE BEACH. These same green sea turtles have come off of the endangered species list! Resilient legends!
